Paul Goddard was susceptible to peer pressure growing up. “To try and fit in I’d commit crimes with the other guys who were older than me,” he says. “Shoplifting, stealing cars. I was a bit of a turd, to be honest.” He grew up in Newton Heath, Manchester, a post-industrial community that ranks highly in the nationwide index for deprivation. “I didn’t have much choice,” Goddard says. “Commit crime to be one of the boys, or sit alone in my room all day?”
Goddard, who is now 39 and works in promotions and marketing in Manchester, struggled with his mental health throughout his teens. His father wasn’t around and he lacked a male role model. “There was this demon inside me,” he says. “I hated the world. No one was there for me. It made me into a pretty bad person for a while.”
